The NBA is back baby — and just in time for Christmas!
Black Friday proved to be more than just a day of shopping deals, as the National Basketball Association and the NBA Player’s Union used the day to structure a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, effectively ending the prolonged NBA lock out. By 3am on Saturday morning, a deal was reached and the NBA and its players began preparing to start a season that is now a month behind schedule.
Here is what the new deal looks like:
– Players and owners settled on a 50-50 split of revenues, which could climb as high as 51% or drop as low as 49% should revenues exceed or fall short of projections.
– The contract length will be 5 years for Bird rights players and 4 years for non-Bird.
– There will be no reduction in the Rookie Scale or the minimum salary.
– Max salaries will only have one level and it will be equal to 30% of the salary cap, while sign-and-trades will be allowed.
– The new exception will be $2.5 million for teams below the cap to go over the cap. Those teams can’t use the mid-level or bi-annual exceptions.
– For the mid-level exception, teams under the luxury tax can pay $5 million annually for up to 4 years, while teams over the tax have a $3 million offer for up to 4 years.
– There will be a 10% annual escrow system.
– The minimum team salary increases to 85% in the first two years and 90% in years thereafter.
The new deal still has a few “B” list issues to be worked out, including age requirement for the draft, drug testing, D-League assignments and other minor issues. But no one expects these issues to be a major stumbling block toward the larger deal.
A “yes” vote is required from 15 of the 29 owners (the league owns the New Orleans Hornets) and from a simple majority of the approximately 450 NBA players. Once this occurs, training camps for players and a shortened free agency period (to make trades) will begin on December 9th. There will be a 66 game season that will begin with a triple-header on Christmas Day (Miami Heat vs. Dallas Mavericks, Chicago Bulls vs. Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics vs. New York Knicks). The mid-season All-Star game will take place as planned, while the playoffs and NBA finals will occur 1 week later in the season. The only question remaining is, can the NBA rebound from the lock out and regain its posture among the fan base?
For more information regarding the new NBA agreement, click HERE.
YESSSSS!!!!! This makes me very happy.